Potty

We are in the process of teaching Alyssa a life skill that will serve her for the rest of her life. We are potty training parents. There must be a million ways to carry out such training, and I guess what matters most is that you help your child distinguish between acceptable times & places to pee and unacceptable times & places to pee (number 1. We don't seem to have issues with number 2). So as I'm thinking life skill, I imagine Alyssa is thinking more along the lines of how cool her new Dora panties are. We got them for her to sleep in thinking she would never want to soil them if she could help it; however, with her track record over the last couple days I think she might think these are special panties to wear at night so that she can pee in them‹kind of like her princess pull ups. She is so cute. We had a little conversation this morning over breakfast to talk about things we could do to have a "dry night." Alyssa's response, spoken like a seasoned potty professional, "Go potty before I go to bed, and in the morning." We are getting there, but at the same time we still don¹t know how far away "there" is. It does take a significant amount of courage and self motivation for a 3 1/2 year old to get up in the middle of the night if necessary to go potty. We've tried to pave the way with nightlights and a baby monitor so that she can call for assistance. We know she¹ll do it though. A couple of times we've put her to bed and stayed downstairs to watch television and we've heard her get out of bed, use the potty, flush, wash her hands, and go to bed! No questions. No request for praise or assistance. She can do it. If only we could get that to happen in the still of the night.

Progress! A few days after I wrote the preceding thoughts Alyssa was proud to report a dry night. Hopefully we congratulated her sufficiently so that if having a dry diaper wasn't enough, perhaps the celebration was.

Alyssa: I don't know... go potty. I tried to go potty once all by myself but I still got wet.

Mom: I know. So did you try one night to get up and go potty all by yourself?

Alyssa: Um hmm

Mom: You did? It is so hard at night time huh... I know. Do you think Mom and Dad could help you in any way? How do you think we could help you?

Alyssa: I don't know.

Mom: Maybe if we came and got you at night, or...

Alyssa: Came an... no, If I call for you, you, in my monitor you'll say, "OK I'll get you in my monitor."

Mom: Uh huh. We always come and get you when we hear you call for us huh,... in the monitor. hmmm.

Alyssa: In your bed, and in your monitor.